March 27, 2023 | Issue 3188
"Even if he is not simple, he can only succeed if he thinks about things first."
With Sun Xin (played by Zhang Li) "surprise return" at Sun Xiang's (Mao Xiaotong) wedding, the "Xinxiang" sisters reunited in the same city and continued to spend the small winds and waves of life together. Many people can't help but burst into tears when they see the final "want to enter the right and wrong" CP wearing Xiuhe clothes and cultivating positive results.
It's no wonder that the closest related word of "Wishful Thinking" on Weibo is "too good to cry", and chasing this drama will always be unable to help but wonder if his tears have become lower. The main plot of the flow of life is not a ups and downs, but the emotions and warmth surging in the plain fragments can always touch the soft corners of the heart.
Who said that urban themes can only rely on dramatic extreme conflicts if they want to attract attention? When the creator is deeply immersed in daily life, talking about "living" in every detail can also capture the viewer's heart.
From the beginning to the end, the ratings of "Wishful Work" have been rising. According to China Audiovisual Big Data (CVB), the average rating of each episode of 1-30 episodes of this drama is as high as 1.541%, ranking firmly the champion of prime-time TV dramas in the same period of the whole channel.
Kuyun data shows that since its broadcast, the all-channel prime-time TV series ratings ranking has ranked in the TOP1 for 18 consecutive days, the peak real-time attention of live TV has exceeded 2% for four consecutive days, the historical average live broadcast attention is as high as 1.4788%, and the market share of full-end broadcasting has ranked TOP3 for 18 consecutive days; Yunhe Data has the highest market share of the highest effective playback of positive films, reaching 11.8%; The highest popularity on Tencent's station exceeded 23,000+, and it topped the Tencent Family Drama List for 17 consecutive days; iQIYI's highest popularity exceeded 6700+; Won the weekly champion of Maoyan family affection, marriage, family, romance TV series popularity list and the weekly champion of the overall popularity list for 2 consecutive times; The number of hot search topics on the whole network exceeded 350+; It has also been reported by many mainstream media newspapers such as People's Daily (overseas edition), Guangming Daily, Wen Wei Po, Beijing Daily, Global Times, Sichuan Radio and Television News, etc.
Writer Wang Anyi once stressed that novel creation should not forget "livelihood", and "livelihood" is "living". The same is true for the creation of dramas, "Wishful Thinking" can arouse emotional resonance on such a large scale, precisely to "come from the mundane world, to the mundane world", to construct life with characters, to gain trivial daily insight into society, the audience uses the people in the play to re-examine their own lives, gain inspiration from topics closely related to themselves, and also harvest warmth, healing and satisfaction.
People like to use TV series to watch other people's lives, but for creators, it is not easy to write a long life, and from the creative details and ingenuity of "Wishful Thinking", we may be able to glimpse a new solution to life dramas.
Women's issues come to life
The main line of this drama is the life trajectory of Sun Xinsun and Sun Xiang's sisters and flowers intertwined in parallel. Although they are twin flowers that grow under the same roof, the hearts and desires of the two sisters are very different. Sister Sun Xin is the epitome of urban independent women, highly educated, rational and mature, striving for the top in every job; The younger sister Sun Xiang is a Buddhist "little sun", lively and kind, but easy to meet people.
The sisters are two representative samples of women, and the two lives depict the different situations of urban people "rolling" and "lying", and the female issues implied in them are also thought-provoking.
Leaders who "plot against each other" during the promotion period, plagiarize colleagues who speak ill of each other after being exposed, and there is always no reason for malice in the workplace. The setbacks and choices Sun Xin faces are a true portrayal of women in the workplace. The presentation of right and wrong in the workplace in the play is relatively mild, and value choices such as "following the flow or sticking to the bottom line" are internalized in daily work. Sun Xin's naked resignation after reporting a leader's misconduct may not be a panacea answer to the problem, but at least it can give people in the same situation the courage to say "no".
The heroine of urban dramas often falls into the image of the workplace elite, which easily promotes things that are difficult for ordinary people to achieve. Sun Xin does not have the golden finger of an elite heroine, but the social animal spirit of "passing the pass and passing the pass" makes people have a lot more resonance and sense of substitution.
Unlike her sister, Sun Xiang's life progress is temporarily behind, and compared with the trade-offs between workplace and family, Sun Xiang's difficult love path has a stronger reference significance for female audiences.
Although he finally had a happy union with his sweetheart, he stumbled and almost missed a good relationship in the middle. It is logical for Yu Fei (played by Wang Ziyi) and Sun Xiang to meet passionate love from the beginning, but even stable intimate relationships need to be maintained and managed. Some psychologists once said that a good intimate relationship is two tigers showing their belly. If it were not for the lack of communication, the two might not have separated halfway, let alone given those who have the heart the opportunity to "take advantage of the void".
Wang Yibing (played by Yu Jinze) has the opposite of his character and desires, and his love and requirements for Sun Xiang are quite utilitarian. Repeatedly proposing PUA and secretly transferring the company made Sun Xiang disappointed again and again, and emotional control is also worthy of vigilance in intimate relationships.
In the play, Wang Yibing's "bad" is not symbolic, everyone's evil thoughts have a source, and his lack of confidence in his origin and his desire to achieve quick results make him destined to be unable to think with Sun for a long time. "Thinking Done" makes the characters detailed, and emotional contradictions are the natural evolution of life, so it can penetrate into the audience's heart to trigger spiritual resonance.
Philosophy of life, subtleties find healing
Audiences love to watch life dramas, often because the delicate and abundant emotions conveyed by life dramas can heal the loneliness in the heart.
The flow of warmth between people weaves the story chapter of "Wishful Thinking", and the support and protection of sisters is the most healing bright color of all emotions. Sun Xin and Sun Xiang are relatives and the first female friend in each other's lives. Blood ties and the natural and cheerful character of northern girls have made them form a closer friendship than ordinary sisters. Sun Xin helped "want to eat the heart" on the right track, and he is a noble person in Sun Xiang's career; Sun wants to be quick to talk quickly, and can always help Sun Xin, who has fallen into a lost path, open his heart.
This drama has long provided a sufficiently pure sisterhood, no misunderstanding rifts, no rebellion, only the intimacy and dependence of sharing a foot soaking bucket.
The core of the life drama is how to tell how to "live a life", and "getting along with family" is undoubtedly the most difficult part of life to describe. The family affection in "Wishful Thinking" is expressed as "family talk", there are many fragments of a family making dumplings and talking freely at the dinner table in the play, and the seemingly scattered daily conversations are actually full of fun, and discord is melted in three meals a day, shopping and gossip.
Sun wants to clean up the messy clothes and shout "Ma", Li Huilan (played by Zhang Kaili) is helpless and disgusted with Sun Jian (played by Sun Song), her husband who is addicted to mobile phone fighting landlords, all seem to be reproduced from the real scene of life. This kind of dialogue and sense of proportion comes from the creator's insight into life. It seems to be trivial, but it gives the characters a stronger sense of landing, and also adds a bit of pyrotechnics to the story.
There is no grand narrative or perfect characters in "Wishful Thinking", but it is good that every character is real and natural enough. For example, Sun Jian, the father of the sisters. The grandfather has a free-range attitude towards his daughter on the surface, but he will take out the private money at the bottom of the box for Sun Xin's wedding, and will cling to the lack of a button before walking the red carpet. It is said that there is no word about love, but love everywhere. The capture and perfection of the details of the characters in "Wishful Thinking" tells the true meaning of family affection, and waiting and reluctance are always difficult to explain.
The concept of "home" is also extended in the play. Collective living is increasingly rare in today's atomized societies, however, the community is the fabric of a city, witnessing the changing times and carrying emotional flows. Public space and private space intersect, and the community of acquaintances, neighborhood affection, family and friendship will always be stronger than ordinary urban people.
"Wishful Thinking" has long recreated the human touch in the city. On weekday evenings, Li Huilan will help neighbors who have not yet left work to take care of their children's homework; At the Spring Festival reunion dinner, there are always figures and laughter from neighbors on the dinner table of the Sun family. Some writers have said that people are essentially more eager to live in groups, and interacting and communicating with the closest people every day can suppress negative and negative emotions in the heart. The intertwined and joyful integration of "Dreams Come True" heals every solitary viewer who longs for a close family bond.
Radiate psychological resonance for all ages
In addition to thinking about sisters, this drama also sketches a diverse and vivid group portrait of grassroots youth. There are small-town youths like Yu Fei and Wang Yibing who are eager to stay in big cities, and there are local youths like Chu Xiaoyu (played by Li Zefeng) who are self-motivated and misguided in the wrong place. "Wishful Thinking" vividly presents the characteristics of ordinary little people in life, so that the audience has a strong sense of identity.
The series is set in five years of rapid changes on the Internet. The change in communication logic has subverted the law of industry development and spawned many new professions. The development process of "want to eat your heart" is the best reference to understand the tide of media transformation, starting from zero in the public account of recipes and good things, and gradually attracting investment from fan subscription accumulation, until finally Sun wants to appear on camera to open a strong sense of companionship of the cooking live broadcast... The pace of integration of graphics, text and audio and video conversion determines the life cycle of self-media.
Every innovation of "want to eat your heart" is in line with the trend of the times. Showing the big era with the story of small people is inseparable from the creator's in-depth research and insight into the industry and the whole society.
In the official Douyin comment area of "Wishful Thinking", "real" and "moving" are the feelings expressed by the audience the most. The reason why this drama can arouse resonance on such a large scale is not only that the series covers a wealth of practical issues, but also uses complex reality to write simple goodwill in human nature. Yu Fei's family suddenly changed, lost his love and had to deliver food part-time, but he still sacrificed his precious delivery time to save people. People do not become ugly because of the bitterness of life, and the essence of life and love is told through the emotions and choices of the characters.
The drama of civilian life that breaks through the circle is by no means limited to the focus on young people. Parents' generation is the mainstream audience of TV series, but few series are willing to pay attention to their thoughts and thoughts. "Wishful Thinking" is a rare way to capture and amplify the entanglements of the mood of parents.
In the play, each elder is not a "tool person" who creates intergenerational contradictions, but really has life and self-emotions. As a teacher for many years, Li Huilan's stunned and nostalgic farewell to the podium is difficult to tell in words, and Sun wants to make up for the sense of loss in her mother's heart with a noisy party. Ordinary parents are short, so they show a thicker emotional level.
Now, "Wishful Wishes" has come to an end in the happy atmosphere of Sun Xiang's wedding. I thought that the sisters and families would continue to taste their own sweetness and bitterness in the tide of the times. Although the play is over, the warmth is never finished. The deeply resonant topic of "Wishful Thinking" and the characters who keep giving understanding and love will become the choice that many audiences relive, and this is why the group portrait life drama can last for a long time.
【Text/Kwai Chung】